Heavy Hitters Bat for Team: Pera and Hughes

May 14, 2014

Julia Papworth

Two of the biggest declines came from Games vet Jon Pera (5th in SoCal), and Chelsey Hughes (2nd in SoCal).  
 

When the first round of SoCal individual athletes responded to their invitation to regionals, a record 19 women and 15 men in the top 48 in each respective division declined.

Two of the biggest declines came from Games vet Jon Pera, fifth in SoCal after the Open, and Chelsey Hughes, second in SoCal after the Open. These heavy hitters have chosen to forgo solo competition in order to bat for their teams, CrossFit Foothill and Brick Nation, at the 2014 SoCal Regional.

Jon Pera: Loyalty

Two-time Games veteran and SoCal native Pera placed 41st in 2011 and 23rd in 2012 at the Games, but sat out the entire 2013 season to support his family.

Though he was initially planning to compete solo in the 2014 season, Pera felt his loyalty to his team surface when his training partners at CrossFit Foothill surprised him with a party on his 31st birthday at the end of March.

“I realized I had been training with these guys all year long and we have pushed each other to the point we are at and it would be messed up to turn my back on them now,” he said. “They deserve the best shot to go to the Games that I do.”

And CrossFit Foothill’s team may stand a chance; its in fifth place in the region after the Open.

Foothill’s owner and one of Pera’s longtime training partners, Nate Lauritzen, is confident in Pera’s decision.

“We are all very excited,” Lauritzen said. “We feel we have a legitimate chance to make it to the Games. When Jon came to me with his decision to go team, he basically said he had been to the Games and thought it would be so much fun to help take five others with him. So that is the plan: top three at regionals.”

This season, Pera is hoping to take those five others to Carson, California to enjoy the experience more as part of a team.

“My first year competing as an individual at the Games I was shell-shocked,” Pera said. “I came with nothing and expecting nothing. (It) is not the most fun as an individual; you are there with people you don’t know … . If you are there doing the same stuff with your teammates and friends, it would just be more fun.”

But it’s not just about the fun for Pera and his teammates on Team CrossFit Foothill.

“I am looking forward to seeing my teammates do more than they expected to,” he said. “That adrenaline pump and what it does for them will be awesome to see.”

Chelsey Hughes: Redemption

The story is slightly different for Hughes. Despite a second-place individual Open finish, she will compete with team Brick Nation for the second year in a row.

At last year’s SoCal Regional, Hughes and her team took third and initially received an invite to the Games.

“We podiumed (last year) and it wasn’t that I expected it, but we set our sights so high that it drove us to success,” she said. “This is not little league where everyone gets their reward. If you open your mind to going beyond your limits, it is the perfect chance to do things you didn’t know you were capable of.”

Brick Nation even set a world record for 2013 Regional Event 4, the six-person chipper, and only finished outside of the top 10 in one event in the region.

However, the team was disqualified shortly after regionals because Hughes failed to meet the team eligibility requirements. But that DQ was the motivation to keep the team together for the next season.

“Within the same conversation, when I had to tell my team we were disqualified for 2013, we decided to bounce back quickly and stay together for 2014,” she explained.  

It was an easy decision for Hughes and her teammates to stick together.

“We already had a leg up from training, and we didn’t think twice,” Hughes said. “When we sent back our medals and T-shirts, we said to ourselves we wanted to exchange the third place ones for first place ones.”

With five returners from the 2013 season, the 2014 Brick Nation team heads into regionals tied for second.

And Hughes’ decision to again join her team isn’t out of fear or lack of confidence.

“If you don’t feel like you have a realistic chance to go to the Games and podium at regionals, it is more fun to make a run as a team,” she said. “But for me it is different. I didn’t choose team because I didn’t think I could go as an individual; I wanted the successful team experience to be part of my athletic career and résumé. It’s a huge part of the CrossFit community and you get to be sacrificial all the time. I want to look back on my career and say, ‘That time on that team was amazing!’”

So what do these heavy hitters like Pera and Hughes, strong in their own individual ways, hope to accomplish by going team?

Hughes said it best: “All waters rise together. With all these great athletes, more attention will then go to the team competition. People who are idols in the sport are choosing to go team and people will want to see them compete. It is like tennis. Doubles tennis matches get no attention from the media unless you have Serena Williams playing.”

And there certainly are going to be some Serena Williams’ taking the field at the SoCal Regional.